Create Custom Lists in Excel

This article teaches you how to create and save a new custom list on Excel in order to automatically fill columns and rows, using a Mac or Windows PC.

10 Second Summary

1. Open Microsoft Excel.
2. Launch the Custom Lists editor.
3. Select NEW LIST.
4. Enter your list items under List entries.
5. Click Add.

Steps

Creating a New List

  1. Open Microsoft Excel on your computer. Excel is the spreadsheet tool of the Microsoft Office productivity suite. It is available on both Windows and Mac operating systems.
  2. Launch Excel's Custom Lists editor. How you open the Custom Lists editor will vary depending on your operating system and software version of Excel.
    • For "Excel 2010" or later software on Windows, first, click the File menu at the top of your screen. Then, click Options, Advanced, and General, respectively. Here, click Edit Custom Lists.
    • For "Excel 2007" on Windows, click the Microsoft Office button in the upper-left corner of your screen. It looks like colored squares in a circle. Then, click Excel Options, Popular, Top options for working with Excel, respectively. Here, click Edit Custom Lists.
    • For "Excel for Mac", click the Excel menu in the upper-left corner. Then, click Preferences and Custom Lists, respectively. This will open the editor.
  3. Select NEW LIST in the "Custom lists" box. You will see a list of all your lists in the Custom Lists editor. Click NEW LIST at the top of the Custom lists box to create a new custom list.
  4. Click on the "List entries" box. This is the second box in the Custom Lists editor next to the Custom lists box. Here, you can see all the list entries when you select a list from the Custom lists box.
    • This box will be empty when you select NEW LIST.
  5. Type in entries for your new list. If your new list is short, you can manually fill out the List entries box with entries.
    • Hit ↵ Enter on your keyboard after each entry.
  6. Click the cell selector icon next to the Import button. This button lets you select a range of cells, such as a column or row, from your spreadsheets in order to use this data for your List entries. This option could be useful for long lists with too many entries to manually enter.
    • On Windows, this button looks like an upwards-pointing arrow icon.
    • On Mac, it's a red, diagonal arrow inside a rectangle box.
  7. Click Import. This button will import all the data from the selected range of cells, and plug it into the List entries box.
  8. Click Add. This button will create your new custom list.
  9. Click OK. It will save your changes, and quit the Custom Lists editor. You can now use your new custom list.
    • If you're on a Mac, you might not have an OK button here. In this case, close the dialogue box by clicking the red "X" button in the upper-left corner of the Custom Lists window.

Using Your New List

  1. Type in one of your custom list entries in a cell. This can be any entry from the custom list.
  2. Press Enter on your keyboard.
  3. Click on the cell. Select the cell with your custom list entry in it by clicking on the cell. This will highlight the cell borders.
  4. Click and drag the AutoFill handle in any direction. The handle looks like a small, square dot in the lower-right corner of the cell. It will automatically fill out your sheet with the rest of your custom list entries.
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